Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Examining the Relationship between Gaming and Mining

Cripple Creek is a gold-mining town, since the first lodes were found in the 1890s until the present day. It’s also a gaming town, with limited-stakes gambling approved by voters in 1991. KRCC’s Kate Jonuska investigates these two industries’ complex relationship with the city and with each other.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Leadville: Climax Mine Reopens

For Leadville in Central Colorado, it’s the beginning of a new era. The Climax mine just north of town recently reopened for the first time in nearly two decades. It used to be something of a beating heart for Leadville, with thousands of jobs. When it closed, the town struggled to stay alive. Climax is up and running again, but this time with a lot fewer workers, and the town’s economy has largely moved away from the mining industry. KRCC’s Elise Thatcher went to Leadville to find out what it means to have the Climax mine open again.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Old Man Stratton

Few rags-to-riches stories are as American as the story of Winfield Scott Stratton. His name now adorns street signs, buildings and parks throughout the Pikes Peak Region, but the story of just how hard he worked to become the working man’s gold baron is a true Cripple Creek melodrama.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

News

September 14, 2019 | NPR · An effort to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee sparked the white nationalist rally in 2017 that resulted in the deaths of counter-demonstrator Heather Heyer and two state police officers.

September 14, 2019 | NPR · The attacks on oil facilities by the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels sent large plumes of smoke into the air, the trails visible from space, and impacted an estimated production of 5 million barrels a day.

September 14, 2019 | NPR · Mhairi McFarlane’s latest follows the unfortunate, aimless Georgina as she deals with her father’s death, a bad boyfriend and a worse job — until her first love unexpectedly walks back into her life.

Music

September 14, 2019 | NPR · Before settling in Harlem, Mary Lou Williams traveled the country playing with big bands. The road shaped her sound, and her theory of black music as “the greatest and only true art in the world.”